How To Find The Traffic Of (Almost) Any Website

There are times when you really want to spy (or estimate) another website’s traffic – whether it’s for Competitor Analysis or fun. But how? Well, there are many ways to check another website’s traffic but most of those sources are inaccurate and unreliable. I’m going to tell you exactly how to get the accurate traffic stats of almost any website.

How To Find The Traffic Of A Website

DoubleClick Ad Planner by Google

DoubleClick Ad Planner is a free media planning tool by Google that helps you to find out the websites your potential customers are likely to visit.

Basically Ad Planner is for Google AdWords advertisers but you can use that to estimate the traffic of almost any website. You must be logged in and must accept the DoubleClick Ad Planner Program Terms to use the tool.

Google Ad Planner shows the traffic details of a website if has sufficient data about that domain (in other words it doesn’t show the traffic stats of low traffic websites). From my analysis, I found that they used to show the traffic stats of most websites that gets at least 10,000 unique visitors per month unless the website is not sharing any traffic data with public. (e.g. Google.com).

Ad Planner data is more accurate if the website owner is using Google Analytics and is sharing the data with Google otherwise it shows inflated data. Learn how Google estimates traffic here.

Now, How Did I Verify The Ad Planner Data?

I can say that the Ad Planner shows the most accurate traffic stats of another website when compared with Alexa, Compete, Quantcast etc. I have verified the same using BuySellAds Marketplace. I selected few websites that was selling site wide banners via BuySellAds.com so that they track the monthly visits and page views. I compared those stats with the Ad Planner data and found that it was comparable to the DoubleClick data.

And I have checked my own Ad Planner traffic stats and confirmed that it is comparable to that of my AWStats data. It’s not showing my Google Analytics traffic stats as I’m not sharing my Google Analytics data with Google.

Google Ad Planner Traffic Statistics for Wikipedia.org

Google Ad Planner Demographic Data of Wikipedia.org

Google Ad Planner Audience Reach – Wikipedia.org

BuySellAds

BuySellAds is an online advertising network where publishers can list their ad inventory. If the target website is selling site wide banners via BuySellAds then you can know the exact traffic of that website. All you need to do is check their listing on BuySellAds.com and it shows the exact traffic stats of that domain.

BuySellAds counts the visits only if their script is installed so if the website is showing a site wide banner then most probably their ad script is placed on all pages and you can rely those stats.

There are more sites – Alexa, Compete, comScore, Quantcast, SEMrush – which track another website’s traffic but I wouldn’t trust any of them as they are inaccurate. But you can still use those services as a source of supplement information.

Hi Mahesh, I’ve been using Google Ad Planner Traffic statistics since I discovered it on 2010 and I completely agree with you that the Traffic information they used to show was very accurate. But Google has changed Google Ad Planner and on the Traffic statistics they now only show: -Unique visitors (cookies) -Reach (cookies) -Impressions / day Anyone knows a good alternative to Google Ad Planner with most of the Traffic statistics that they used to show? -Unique visitors (estimated cookies) -Unique visitors (users) -Reach -Page views -Total visits -Avg visits per cookie -Avg time on site Thank you!

http://www.maheshone.com Mahesh Mohan

Hello,

I will post an update if I find a good alternative. But I believe that there is no reliable other way.

It appears like AdPlanner now shows data for domains which have enabled placement.

Thanks!

http://www.maheshone.com Mahesh Mohan

Great! But please note that Google have changed Adplanner analytics a bit. Now they’re not showing the stats of most websites. But yeah, it works!

http://www.geeksgallery.com hari krishna

Nice posts. i agreed with you they used to show very accurate

http://www.maheshone.com Mahesh Mohan

Right! But it’s sad that DoubleClick data is not available now for all sites.

http://www.careerandtricks.com rohit chugh

i do not know adplanner before your post.. i get to know this very useful tool after this post. thanks alot and please tell me how we can earn money with adsense more. i have adsense but not having good money with this

http://www.maheshone.com Mahesh Mohan

There’s no big secret when it comes to making money with AdSense. All you need is Content and more Content. Traffic and income will follow.. And check out [How Much Traffic Do You Need To Make $100,000] http://www.minterest.org/how-much-traffic-do-you-need-to-make-money/ to get an idea about how much traffic you will need to hit your target income from AdSense.

b.li

hi mahesh, is it okay to signup for many adsense alternatives for my blog…? so i can earn more….?!

http://www.maheshone.com Mahesh Mohan

Hi,

Anytime AdSense is the best… so first focus on content, write content, write more quality content, build backlinks to your blog gradually, start monetization when you get enough traffic.

Diego

Hi, what is a backlink? I was accepted by Adsense today (I think), I´m writing avarege per month 800 entries. Thanks!

http://www.minterest.com Mahesh Mohan

Hi,

When another website (it can be any website) is linking to your website then we call it a backlink to your website. When you get backlinks from high quality backlinks from other websites in your industry your Google traffic will skyrocket.

http://internetwarz.com/ Vipul Behl

Ad planner has been shut down and is no longer available for use.

http://www.minterest.com Mahesh Mohan

Yes, but their new Display Planner is also nice though it’s not as good as the old adplanner.

http://internetwarz.com/ Vipul Behl

True, Ad planner was better than Display planner.

http://www.angraj.blogspot.com/ Angraj

Try similarweb.com to find traffic of any website.

http://www.minterest.com Mahesh Mohan

Yes, SimilarWeb is good too as we get a ton of information about any website in a single page.

About Mahesh (@maheshone)

Hey there, I’m Mahesh (@maheshone). I started learning and doing and experimenting web 2.0 stuff back in 2004 and eventually became a full-time computer nerd after graduation. Minterest is a digital marketing and technology journal that I founded in 2007 to feed my super curiosity (yes, it’s single authored). I write about tech, marketing, and everything in between that excites me. And I love to work with small businesses to help them get the most out of the web. Outside of that, I'm equally passionate about the financial markets and I also spend a lot of time doing random things (see random facts about me). Say hi: m@maheshone.com. Read More »